In 1959, the Royal Meteorological Office's High Altitude Research Unit contracted with Bristol Aerojet and RPE Wescott to develop a low-cost meteorological rocket designed to reach altitudes of 80 km. The resulting Skua design consisted of Chick boosters which burned for 0.2 seconds to blast the rocket 20 m above the 5 m launch tube. Then the Bantam second stage would ignite and boost the payload to altitude. Four Skua variants were flown over the years.

Skua British sounding rocket. In 1959, the Royal Meteorological Office's High Altitude Research Unit contracted with Bristol Aerojet and RPE Wescott to develop a low-cost meteorological rocket designed to reach altitudes of 80 km. The resulting Skua design consisted of Chick boosters which burned for 0.2 seconds to blast the rocket 20 m above the 5 m launch tube. Then the Bantam second stage would ignite and boost the payload to altitude. Four Skua variants were flown over the years. More...

Skua 1 British sounding rocket. In the original Skua version, 3 Chick boosters were used. The Bantam second stage burned for 30 seconds to boost the payload to 70 km. The payload deployed a radar-reflective parachute to allow winds aloft to be measured, and readings from a thermometer were radioed to the ground. More than 900 Skua 1's were launched from 11 sites in six countries. More...

Skua 2 Skua 2 was used 4 Chick boosters and a lengthened Bantam motor to take more complex 5 kg scientific payloads to 100 km altitude. More than fifty Skua 2's were fired between 1967 and 1972 as part of the British national space program. More...

Skua 4 British sounding rocket. Skua 4 was further enhanced to take a 7.5 kg paylaod to 140 km altitude. The vehicle used four Chick boosters and an improved Bantam upper stage. More...

Associated Launch Sites

Fort Churchill Fort Churchill is an Arctic site on Hudson Bay with a rail link. It is near the point of maximum auroral activity. This combination of circumstances made it ideal for far-north sounding rocket launches. In 1954, the Canadian Army conducted the first series of rocket firings at Fort Churchill. Following a period of inactivity, construction of more elaborate facilities in support of the International Geophysical Year began in 1956. IGY firings began in July 1957. The range was closed again in December 1958 after the IGY program ended. It was reopened again in August 1959 by the US Army as part of its network of sounding rocket stations. This allowed use of the site by other groups over the years. More...

Aberporth The Aberporth military test range is located on Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales. It already became associated with solid rocket tests during the Second World War. Development of surface-to-air missiles began there in 1948 and tests were made of re-entry and high-speed aircraft shapes in the 1960's. Due to the military nature of the site, the only sounding rocket launches have been to support military test operations. These included 40 known launches from 1959 to 1972. More...

Sonmiani Sounding rocket launch location known to have been used for 90 launches from 1962 to 2007, reaching up to 423 kilometers altitude. More...

Andoya Andoya Rocket Range (ARR) is the world's northernmost permanent launch facility for sounding rockets and scientific balloons and is responsible for all scientific-related balloon and rocket operations in Norwegian territory. ARR provides complete services for launch, operations, data acquisition, recovery and ground instrumentation support. The range has conducted more than 650 rocket launches and hosted scientists and engineers from more than 70 institutes and universities. More...

South Uist British missile test range, occupying a good portion of northwest South Uist island in the Hebrides. Aside from missile testing, it has also been used for launch of Skua and Petrel meteorological rockets. Known to have been used for 222 launches from 1962 to 1982, reaching up to 174 kilometers altitude. More...

Thumba Sounding rocket launch location known to have been used for 1385 launches from 1963 to 2004, reaching up to 400 kilometers altitude. More...

Kiruna The sounding rocket launch site at Kiruna was officially opened in September 1966 under the auspices of ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). When ESA was created in 1972 and replaced ESRO, Kiruna came under the management of the Swedish Space Corporation, a state-owned limited liability company under the Swedish Ministry of Industry. The 'Esrange' is located 45 km from the town of Kiruna and has seven permanent pads able to launch the largest sounding rockets, including the Black Brant 9, Skylark 12, and Castor 4B-boosted vehicles. More...

El Arenosillo Spanish sounding rocket launch location known to have been used for 335 launches from 1966 to 1994, reaching up to 700 kilometers altitude. More...

Kourou After the agreement with newly independent Algeria for France to evacuate their launch sites in that country, a location near Biscarosse was selected for French missile testing. However since only launches westwards across the Bay of Biscay could be made from this site, it was unsuitable for France's Diamant orbital launch vehicle. After reviewing 14 potential sites, a location in the South American French colony of Guiana was selected. This would allow over-water launches to a tremendous range of possible orbital inclinations -- from -100.5 deg to 1.5 deg. Being near the equator, it would provide the maximum assist from the earth's rotation for launches into equatorial orbits. The decision was formalized in April 1964 and in July 1966 ELDO chose the site for future launches of the Europa II launch vehicle. More...